GreenMusings

The musings of a girl called Green. 21. Senior. Poli Sci. Norcal native. Indian. Queer. Fangirl. Feminist. Optimist. Dreamer.

[susiephone]

tbh the line “peggy confides in me” makes me happy bc it makes me think of alexander being a really cool older brother who listens to peggy rant and vent about things that are bugging her and offering to destroy whoever’s making her upset

“want me to drag his name through the mud”

“that’s sweet, alexander, but–”

“no i’m serious i have like 20 pseudonyms i’ve been meaning to use i could totally publish a pamphlet about him and his secret obsession with france”

“he’s obsessed with france?”

“no but he could be”

“you don’t have to”

“i already know what to call the pamphlet”

“please no”

“it’s a pun”

“alexander no”

“he made you cry peggy it’s happening”

“but–”

“shhh let your big brother take care of everything”

[queenidinamenzel]

Oh my god.

[owning-my-truth-deactivated2022]

Beyoncé’s “Love Drought” Video, Slavery and the Story of Igbo Landing

[image description: Beyoncé in the music video for “Love Drought” marching into the water followed by a procession of black women]

Beyoncé’s LEMONADE is filled with incredible artistry and stunning imagery. One of the most striking images for me on the visual album, though, occurs in the video for “Love Drought”. Much has been said about how LEMONADE draws influence from Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, but less has been said in these same conversations about how the story of Igbo Landing is central to Daughters of the Dust and how the story of Igbo Landing- an act of mass resistance against slavery-also shows up in a really pronounced manner in the “Love Drought” Video.

[Image description: Donovan Nelson’s artistic depiction of Igbo Landing in charcoal. It shows the Igbo slaves marching into a body of water with the water already up to their necks and their eyes closed. Image via Valentine Museum of Art]

For those who don’t know, Igbo Landing is the location of a mass suicide of Igbo slaves that occurred in 1803 on St. Simons Island, Georgia. As the story goes, a group of Igbo slaves revolted and took control of their slave ship, grounded it on an island, and rather than submit to slavery, proceeded to march into the water while singing in Igbo, drowning themselves in turn. They all chose death over slavery. It was an act of mass resistance against the horrors of slavery and became a legend, particularly amongst the Gullah people living near the site of Igbo Landing. 

Not only is the story of Igbo Landing one of the key themes of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, which influenced LEMONADE, but its imagery also appears to be central to the “Love Drought” video. In the video, Beyoncé marches into the water followed by a group of black women all in white with black fabric in the shape of a cross across the front of their bodies. They march progressively deeper into the water before pausing and raising all of their hands toward the sunset.

[Image description: Beyoncé marching into a large body of water by a beach followed by other black women]

This scene and the video as a whole also occurs in a marshy, swampy landscape, matching African-American folklore descriptions of the location of Igbo Landing. In addition, this is all mixed in with imagery of Beyoncé physically bound in ropes and resisting their pull, which directly evokes slavery, resistance and the events at Igbo Landing for me.

[Image description: Beyoncé on a beach leaning backward as she appears to be resisting the pull of a taught rope]

Lastly, I would like to note how Beyoncé and the group of black women she is with very deliberately rose their hands while in the water toward the sunset. For me this recalled how the act of mass resistance at Igbo Landing was mythologized in many African-American communities as either the myth of the “water walking” or “flying” Africans. In the latter legend, the Igbo slaves walked into the water and then flew back to Africa, saving themselves in turn. 

Below is the myth of the “flying Africans” at Igbo Landing as told by Wallace Quarterman, an African-American man born in 1844 who was interviewed by members of the Federal Writers Project in 1930 (via wiki):

Ain’t you heard about them? Well, at that time Mr. Blue he was the overseer and … Mr. Blue he go down one morning with a long whip for to whip them good… . Anyway, he whipped them good and they got together and stuck that hoe in the field and then … rose up in the sky and turned themselves into buzzards and flew right back to Africa… . Everybody knows about them.

[Image description: Beyoncé and several black women partially submerged in water by a beach and raising their arms toward the setting sun]

Seeing Beyoncé and a group of black women marching into the water and raising their hands collectively toward the sunset reminded me specifically of this last interpretation of the story of Igbo Landing where the slaves flew to their freedom.

There are lots of potential interpretations for this video and the visual album as a whole but the core imagery of the “Love Drought” video - marshy landscape matching folklore descriptions of the location of “Igbo Landing,” images of Beyoncé bound in ropes and resisting their pull, a collective march into the water and holding their hands out toward the sky as if they were about to fly away together-basically screamed out to me as the story of Igbo Landing as I watched the video. It’s such a powerful act of mass resistance against slavery and as an Igbo person living today in America, it was moving to see imagery which reminded me strongly of it in LEMONADE as well.

Learn more about the story of Igbo Landing: Here

[likeawildthing]

important things to remember

all three houses stood between harry potter and pansy parkinson

mr & mrs weasley fought the battle of hogwarts without knowing where ron was

harry was so caught up in battle prep he forgot about the horcrux thing

neville & his herbology buddies threw mandrakes @ death eaters 

then neville used venomous tentacula to ensnare them

sir cadogan being IN HIS ELEMENT and rushing from painting to painting shouting encouragement @ people

mrs norris hissed & batted at owls

firenze showed up to fight 

poor hermit bewildered alberforth dealt w/ literally hundreds of people passing in & out of his house & then came to fight when he realized what was happening

slughorn finally decided his loyalties

ron: “so what’s new with you?”

colin creevy snuck back in after the evacuation

ron went after the basilisk fangs & remembered parseltongue to get them

hermione’s quick thinking w/ that slide literally saved their lives

mrs augusta longbottom put on her hat before she came to see what the what was up @ hogwarts

even the Headless Hunt people showed up

all the portraits encouraged ppl

instead of grieving in the great hall, ginny went outside, probably to be alone, and found it in herself to comfort a scared, lost girl whimpering for her motherneville & wood gathering the dead

professor trelawney throwing crystal balls down @ people

percy cursed the minister of magic & cracked a joke

minerva in her tartan dressing gown w/ a flock of galloping desks trailing behind

peeves dropped snargaluff pods onto death eaters so they were covered in wriggling, fat green worms

a dying snape was still with it enough to give harry those memories

He is dead!

mcgonagall’s scream

He beat you!

neville charged voldemort and mouthed off to him & slayed tf out of that snake

hagrid had his bro carry him from the cave to hogwarts, got shoved through a window, got carried away by giant spiders, and sobbed & carried dead harry all the way back to hogwarts

the rest of the centaurs, everyone & their mom, the threstrals, and even buckbeak came to fight

kreacher leading all the house elves w/ carving knives & cleavers stabbing & hacking @ death eaters

Not my daughter, you bitch!

harry literally waited until the opportune moment to reveal himself & it was so dramatic. bless him, sirius would’ve been so proud.

harry tried to get voldy to try remorse and redeem himself

ppl throwing food out the window into grawp’s mouth

blessed luna saw that harry was exhausted & distracted ppl so he could get out of the great hall

peeves immediately made up a verse about moldy voldy

harry: i’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime. *immediately joins the aurors*

[readsettlers]

reply to this with the worst discourse you can think of

[communistbakery-deactivated2017]

we need a term for those who arent hurt by furryphobia. i propose the term “allofurry” 

[readsettlers]

this post is officially cancelled

[desifashion]

Diya Prabhakar for Elle India April 2016

[dorkhamill-blog]

ah i wish i had her hair (but I do have her name which is pretty cool :P) 

[indian-food-blog]

Barack Obama eating Jalebi. Mmm. Wow.

[chaibseret]

Shalom Bollywood (2013)

[mothurs]

your friend group will gradually get gayer and gayer throughout the years 

[akaashvaani]

Falooda. 🍨 

[ouijawh0re]

Adorable little cinnamon rolls too pure for this world. #webarebears

[verylittlebird]

kids today google, not giggle. they play angry birds instead of getting angry AT birds. they all have an ipad but no iq. not even one. they playstation but they never play station. i.e. one pretending to be a train and the others pretending to be different trains or low paid maintenance workers. they’re obsessed with one direction, rather than enjoying all eight directions equally. facebook… but unable to face… a book. or a hoop with a stick. a lost generation. the tv show.

[hollywoodsocialite]

[xicanism]

Vintage photo from a 1971 Chicano demonstration against police brutality in East Los Angeles.

[egzpl-deactivated20160802]

Licia Ronzulli, member of the European Parliament, has been taking her daughter Vittoria to the Parliament sessions for two years now.

[ceevee5]

Every time this is on my dash, it’s an automatic reblog.

[cultureshift]

Life. There’s always a way to make it work.

[awaiting-my-escape]

This woman runs PARLIAMENT with a baby in her lap and she’s CLEARLY doing an outstanding job because she’s still there being a total boss two years later, baby still in her lap.

“A baby will destroy your career-”

Really

Are you sure?

Because I’m pretty sure that Licia Ronzulli would laugh at that declaration.

[lacigreen]

Licia Ronzulli is badass.  But…she’s much more the exception than the rule. A woman I know works at the UN and was invited to bring her baby.  She told me at first she was very excited about how progressive it seemed, but she soon broke under the pressure.  She said she found it hard to focus on both the task at hand and her baby, and constantly feels like she’s failing one or the other.  On top of that, she felt bad for being unable to pull it off with the ease and finesse of an empowered 21st century woman.  “All my life I’ve championed feminism, but now it’s like I’m being trapped by it.” she said to me.

The reality is: there isn’t always a way to make motherhood + career work.   Not everyone’s job allows this, our society doesn’t support it in tangible ways, it’s not always realistic.  When it does work, it’s quite often very challenging.  Most women must make sacrifices, whatever her path may be.  Feminists need to advocate for community support and resources (like affordable daycare, maternity/paternity leave, parents collectives, etc) to actually enable women to “do it all”.  Telling women to “lean in” or “she did it so can you” might be well intentioned, but in our current context, it’s just another unrealistic expectation that many will struggle to live up to.

[fowllanguagecomics]

Boop yourself over to my bonus panel.

[nevver]

[goongdingy]

The thing about this is that sculptures like these in art history were for the male gaze. Photoshop a phone to it and suddenly she’s seen as vain and conceited. That’s why I’m 100% for selfie culture because apparently men can gawk at women but when we realize how beautiful we are we’re suddenly full of ourselves…

[stem-cell]

“You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

[dreamsofgreen]

I once told a guy in my creative writing class that his story had a lot of male gaze in it but he heard it as male gays and he became super uncomfortable.